Can you imagine throwing your TV away every 12 months and getting the latest model?
It’s not going to happen unless you live on the 9th floor of a Los Angeles hotel with a troublesome 70’s rock group (and let’s face it not many of us do...)
However, when it comes to your mobile phone I bet you’re much more ruthless. I know I’m quite happy to ‘upgrade’ and chuck my out of date phone away every 12 months or so in favour of a new model with all the latest features.
And it doesn’t take David Cameron to see that getting rid of thousands of pieces of electrical equipment containing things like mercury, lithium, cadmium and brominated flame-retardants each month isn’t exactly great news for Mother Nature...
WEEE!!!
That’s perhaps why the EU has decided to clamp down vigorously on what is known as ‘e-waste’.Under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment(WEEE) Directive each Member State has been required to introduce laws to ensure producers bear the cost of collection, delivery and disposal of ‘e-waste' coming out of their products.
The UK laws passed under this Directive will come into effect on 1st January 2007 and should result in a massive convergence of two trends.
Firstly, the rapid advance of mobile and computer technology and secondly the growing focus on the environment. Companies who run specified ‘e-waste’ recycling facilities could do very well as giant electrical companies turn to them for help.
No more dumping in Africa?
Up until the Directive much of the West’s electronic waste was shipped to Asia or Africa - but once they’re done with it, there are very few facilities to deal with the toxic components in things like mobile phones.
Come 2007 all UK manufacturers and retailers will have to join a WEEE compliance scheme and ensure their e-waste is disposed of correctly.
There are a number of companies that look set to benefit from these new laws – especially businesses running the compliance schemes.
I haven’t found any listed companies but I’ve attached a couple of links for you to look at here:
http://www.weeecare.com/?gclid=COzwpPjZ-IgCFQhREgodlQJkHQ
http://www.ageussolutions.com/
https://www.valpak.co.uk/weee/
However, with the consumption of electrical goods increasing year on year recycling e-waste is going to become a huge business that is guaranteed business due to the new regulations.
It is worth keeping an eye out for other companies that will help businesses meet their e-waste needs.
For example in Japan NEC have released their first mobile phone cased in bio-degradable plastic and the use of recyclable plastics in Sony PlayStations.
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